National President Virginia Vaillancourt
Honourable Lawrence MacAulay
Minister of Veterans Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
By E-mail
November 22, 2021
Dear Minister MacAulay,
I am writing to you to request your immediate attention to the situation regarding the caseload for Case Managers at Veterans’ Affairs Canada. We note with interest your renewed promise to provide more resources to deal with this issue but in our view the time for promises is over and it is now time for action.
We do hold you and your government to your repeated commitment to bring the caseload down to the 25:1 ratio. We hope that you will finally deliver on this promise and the Union of Veterans’ Affairs Employees is ready and willing to assist you and the department to achieve that goal as quickly as possible.
We would also like to establish a proper standard for Case Managers within Veterans’ Affairs Canada so that Veterans can get the services they need, and our members can provide them without undue stress and pressure.
To that end we call on you to order Veterans’ Affairs Canada to commission a full external and independent review of the caseloads of Case Managers and that this review be carried out in consultation and with the full participation of UVAE and our members.
This should include input into the process, the selection of consultants and the interaction with Case Managers. This review should be carried out within the next two months and its goal should be to establish the standard for Case Managers and recommendations to achieve and maintain that standard.
We also request a number of interim measures to alleviate the pressure on Case Managers and improve service to Veterans. We request expedited staffing in all areas where the caseload is over 35 Veterans and assigning of support staff to all Case Managers who can assist with data processing and administration to immediately improve service to Veterans and their families.
We respectfully request an immediate response to this request.
Sincerely,
Virginia Vaillancourt
National President
Union of Veterans’ Affairs Employees